Podcast: Encouraging women to explore a career in manufacturing

I think one aspect that's particularly promising to me is just the overall increase in recognition from different companies regarding the value of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. It's certainly something that over the past few years has really ramped up, but you can see the effects of it more so today than you probably have seen in the past. I think ultimately, for most companies, it’s just coming to that understanding that having diverse teams leads to better problem solving, more innovation, and overall higher performance. So I know for a lot of companies, there's a lot of growing momentum behind initiatives for like attraction and retention of women, including mentorship programs and other different leadership development initiatives.

I can say from my own experiences at Endress+Hauser, we have a very strong employee resource group called the Women's Integrated Network that works to bring together women and men across our organization for various reasons, mainly being professional development or just networking and really helping us to establish those relationships that we can carry and begin to create those communities that really retain us in our roles within the manufacturing industry. I think another highlight from our Women's Integrated Network has been establishing a strong partnership with the Society of Women Engineers. So that really is helping us create that pipeline of female engineers that can start to fill those roles that are starting to come up in our organization, as we continue to be a growing company. So it's those little things I think that over time really accumulate in this statistic that you reported that really show the progress that's been made over time. So I think it's really exciting time to be a woman in manufacturing.

EP: For me, as a woman in manufacturing, I've seen significant progress and opportunities unfold in the industry. So I've seen not only an increase of women on the production floor, but I've seen an increase of women in management positions, leadership positions, engineering positions, and it's really inspiring to see. So the numbers that you gave us, you know, I feel as if I'm seeing them in real time. I do work for a company, Subaru, where I have dealt with very little to no discrimination or gender bias. And they do create a lot of opportunities for women in the industry. So they open up those paths and give us leadership opportunities and coaching. And with the increase of women in the production area, we're able to see that and other, you know, women on the floor that are associates, see the women in leadership, see the women in engineering. and they kind of get that confidence to feel as if, OK, I can do this and I can move into this role. So I feel like Subaru does prioritize making things diverse and inclusive.

About the Podcast
Great Question: A Manufacturing Podcast offers news and information for the people who make, store and move things and those who manage and maintain the facilities where that work gets done. Manufacturers from chemical producers to automakers to machine shops can listen for critical insights into the technologies, economic conditions and best practices that can influence how to best run facilities to reach operational excellence.

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